Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/94187
T Transfer big man Garrick Sherman is getting reacclimated to game action BY WES MORGAN FINDING HIS RHYTHM ward Jack Cooley pulls it in 2012-13. However, with senior center Gar- rick Sherman ready to be yoked up off the bench, the strain will be less- ened. Sherman, a 6-10, he Notre Dame men's basketball team will go as far as senior for- who said he let nerves get the best of him. The Fighting Irish 246-pound Michigan State transfer, sat out last season per NCAA rules, and watched Cooley de- liver and absorb beatings on a nightly basis in the Big East Conference. The farm boy from Kenton, Ohio, was champing at the bit to dig in this winter and bolster Notre Dame's frontcourt. But all that pent-up energy resulted in a dud of a season opener at Purcell Pavilion for Sherman, topped Evansville 58- 49 Nov. 10, but a tenta- tive Sherman missed his only shot in 15 minutes of action and finished with three points and three rebounds. Two days later, when Cooley was in early foul trouble at home against Monmouth and the game tied at 7-7 nearly six minutes in, Sherman took over. A thunderous dunk was followed by a soft jumper, and the versatile big man was off and running. He finished with a career- high 22 points, (12 more than his previous best as a sophomore at MSU), snagged a career-best nine rebounds and was awarded the game ball after the 84-57 victory. "He needed this one," Brey said. "He's got that ability — we've seen it in practice. He hasn't done it with the uniform on, so I think this is so important for him before we head to Brooklyn [Nov. 16 game against St. Joseph's College]. This is a game that kind of makes him believe he's really part of it." In his first two sea- sons in East Lansing, Sherman appeared in 70 games for the deep Spartans, who advanced to the Final Four during his freshman campaign in 2009-10. He shot 69.6 percent as a sophomore (48 of 69) in 34 games (17 starts), averaging 3.1 points and 2.6 rebounds per contest. But he never played more than 12 minutes a game. "I haven't really been able to show this much of my game since high